Talk:水無月

Could someone tell me please to what time of the Jewish year does this correspond? 88.153.187.31 20:46, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Could na be from nai (無)?
Since 水無月 (minazuki) uses the kanji for "without", 無, which can be read as nai, I wonder if Minazuki is from Minaitsuki. Can someone who knows Japanese well comment on this? -- Sundar (talk) 01:26, 1 June 2024 (UTC)


 * Checking my references, the w:Man'yōshū has two poems that have the kanji spelling 六月 and the traditional kana reading of みなづき: volume 3 poem 320, and volume 10 poem 1995. If the month name had appeared as minaitsuki, I'd expect evidence of this, but I'm just not finding any.
 * Also, if you can read Japanese, the corresponding page at Kotobank (https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B0%B4%E7%84%A1%E6%9C%88-639070) has multiple references included, and those that describe any word derivation are consistent in denoting the na element as a separate morpheme. The w:Nihon Kokugo Daijiten entry there also has this etymological note:
 * ( 「みなつき」とも. 「な」は「ない」の意に意識されて「無」の字があてられるが、本来は「の」の意で、「水の月」「田に水を引く必要のある月」の意であろうという )
 * (Also attested as minatsuki [without voicing on the つ]. The "na" is spelled with the character 無 out of a perception of the "na" meaning nai ["not, none"], but this originally had the meaning of の [no, the genitive / possessive particle], so the meaning was probably something like 水の月 [mizu no tsuki, "water month / month of water"] or 田に水を引く必要のある月 [ta ni mizu o hiku hitsuyō no aru tsuki, "month when it is necessary to draw water into the paddies"].)
 * HTH! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 21:38, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the detailed explanation! -- Sundar (talk) 01:34, 26 June 2024 (UTC)